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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Today, Chris Wallace is going to be talking to Mark Kelly about gun control, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl about the new Pope. I forget sometimes that instead of having the decency to take Easter Sunday off, these dumb shows instead try to inject themselves into the holiday. Will these shows take Christmas off? We won't find out until December 2016.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Low-income Americans in the South, where states impose some of the nation’s most restrictive Medicaid eligibility requirements, are being forced to put off the medical care they need because they can’t afford it. According to a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine, the American adults who don’t qualify for Medicaid assistance in their states are simply forgoing care — an issue that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which seeks to extend public health insurance to the low-income people who can’t currently qualify for it, can help address.

According to a new Consumer Reports investigative study published Thursday, there is rampant variation in the price of generic drugs as large U.S. pharmacy chains — including CVS, Rite Aid, and Target — mark up the prices of generic drug versions for common medications by as much as 18 times what wholesale chains like Costco charge. That price variance ends up costing Americans, who spend an average of $758 out-of-pocket on drugs every year, hundreds of dollars in unnecessary spending each month.

The wealthy don’t like it when we talk about it inequality. Mitt Romney famously labeled President Obama’s critique of inequality “class warfare” motivated by “envy,” and proposed instead that debate about economic inequality be confined to “quiet rooms.” It’s fair to say he’s not alone among the super-wealthy in thinking this isn’t a “proper” subject for open, political debate.

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency finallyproposed a new set of regulations — known as Tier 3 Vehicle Standards. The rules would reduce the amount of sulfur present in gasoline before our cars burn it. It brings the rest of the country in line with the environmental standards that have regulated California’s automobile industry for years.

Conservatives have long claimed that they’re somehow the victim of persecution when they’re called bigots for opposing same-sex marriage, like when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said at CPAC, “Just because I believe states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot.” But conservatives are adding a novel layer to this trite argument, claiming they actually very much support gay people.

A Philadelphia-area abortion doctor is currently on trial for murder, based on gruesome reports about the illegal techniques that he and his staff used to perform late-term abortions for desperate, low-income women. Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s high-profile case is sparking understandable outrage, as evidence has emerged that he may have taken advantage of vulnerable women, violated multiple medical codes, and performed inhumane surgeries.

Friday, March 29, 2013

There's a comforting-to-white-people fiction about racism and racial inequality in the United States today: They're caused by a small, recalcitrant group who cling to their egregiously inaccurate beliefs in the moral, intellectual and economic superiority of white people.

On Thursday, several men with assault rifles and hand guns crashed a Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns National Day to Demand Action event in Indianapolis, Indiana and stood silently as the state chapter of Moms Demand Action held a rally in favor of limiting the availability of military style weapons and universal background checks.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are nothing new — historically, North Korea frequently rattles its saber for one reason for another. But the recent escalation in tensions between the North and South have experts worried that this time might be different, that the threat of the United States being drawn into a devastating war with the nuclear-armed North is real in a way that it might not normally be. At the very least, it’s worth paying special attention this time around.

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Thursday invited a wave of criticism after using a racial slur to characterize Latinos, saying that he and his father, “used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes.” Young refused to apologize outright for the slur, and several GOP leaders have since called on him to do so.

During an appearance on a local radio station Thursday morning, Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) claimed that people from all over the world are now entering the country illegally through Texas and insisted that any Congressional effort to reform the immigration system must invest in border security.

Since 2010, New York City’s earned sick leave initiative has been debated but never passed, largely thanks to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s (D) refusal to allow a vote. Now, with her hat firmly in the ring for the 2013 mayoral race, Quinn is hinting that she might wind up putting her weight behind the bill. But it isn’t yet clear what concessions might be made, and it’s possible the policy might be seriously “watered-down,” in order to get her support.

Minutes before President Obama delivered an emotional speech asking lawmakers to pass sensible gun safety measures in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, word came from Capitol Hill that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had signed onto a letter pledging to block votes on any of Obama’s proposals for gun legislation.

A new report out Thursday finds that right-wing extremists on Twitter are “highly engaged” with the mainstream conservative movement and the Republican Party and highlights the role the GOP has to play in countering their more violent fans.

It’s a great story: the virtually unknown, 15th seeded Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), has made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. But there’s something you might not know about FGCU: its economics department is, as a consequence of grants from Randian businessman John Allison and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a haven for Ayn-Rand Style thinking:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, expanded rapidly during the Great Recession, when millions of workers lost jobs and entered poverty, forcing them to turn to the government’s social safety net for help. But even as the economy has begun to recover, SNAP “isn’t shrinking back alongside the recovery,” the Wall Street Journal warned today.

Several men with assault rifles and hand guns crashed a Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns National Day to Demand Action event in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday and stood silently as the state chapter of Moms Demand Action held a rally in favor of limiting the availability of military style weapons and universal background checks.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

During the second week of testimony on New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, an officer admitted to detaining and then mocking a 13-year-old boy when he started crying. Though the boy was innocent, he was still cuffed and brought to the station:

Residents of Washington, DC are used to jokes about metaphorical hot air, humidity, and the swampy history of their city. But there’s something they may not know about the District: it’s overrun with methane, which sometimes makes manhole covers explode.

On the coast of West Africa in the country of Ghana, the Ashanti (or Asante) people ruled the land with a warrior’s mind-set. A proud and fierce people, they would encounter British forces who sought to colonize the former Gold Coast for themselves. Although conflicting reports state that the Ashanti once did business with the Brits, it was the outsiders’ brash attempt to undermine the native dwellers that sparked off the infamous “War Of The Golden Stool” (also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War).

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

This week, Breitbart News broke a long-standing security protocol and published a story detailing the precise location where President Obama’s daughters are vacationing this week. On Wednesday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) used the report to attack the First Daughters for taking a vacation.

The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis K. Berman wrote a piece this week comparing the basketball programs at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Kentucky coach John Calipari, as Berman notes, built his program on the backs of players who spend one mandated year in college before jumping to the NBA. Louisville coach Rick Pitino, by contrast, built his with players who are more likely to stick around for the full four years. The implication from Berman is that Kentucky’s program is “hollow” like the Death Star, while Louisville’s is built in the manner that most fans and basketball observers would consider the “right way.”

As large American companies continue to lobby Congress for tax reform that would lower their tax rates, a study of historical corporate tax rates found that they are in fact paying at rates roughly half of those they paid decades ago.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Racism is alive and well in Sweden. Case in point, a Swedish bus driver reportedly forced Blacks and other non-Whites to travel on separate buses from White passengers South African-apartheid-era style, according to the Daily Mail.

Black inventors were plentiful in the 19th Century, often creating innovative tools and techniques despite a known struggle to be recognized for their hard work. In the annals of Black History, the name Thomas J. Martin may not be immediately familiar, but his work as an inventor is quite notable. In 1872, Martin would make an improvement upon an earlier model of the fire extinguisher and was granted a patent (pictured) for his version of the fire-fighting tool on this day.

After axing the assault weapons ban from the Senate’s comprehensive gun violence prevention plan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is struggling to scrape together enough votes to pass the centerpiece of the plan: universal background checks. Republicans are refusing to vote for it, and even several Democrats in red states are wavering on their support. According to Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, these key votes include Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).

One of every six American children has a parent that is either unemployed or underemployed, according to a new study from First Focus and the Urban Institute. Overall, 6.2 million children live in homes where at least one parent is unemployed; the total rises to 12.1 million when underemployment is included too. While that number has decreased slightly in the last two years, it is still substantially higher than pre-recession levels, the report found:

WASHINGTON, DC — There are probably five justices who object to California’s anti-gay Proposition 8 and who would prefer to see it struck down. Justice Kennedy, the conservative viewed as most likely to provide the fifth vote for equality, openly pondered whether Prop 8 violates the Constitution’s ban on gender discrimination. Kennedy at one point admitted uncertainty about whether there is sufficient evidence examining the effect of marriage equality on society, but he then pivoted to note that the nearly 40,000 children raised by gay parents in California suffer “immediate legal injury” because of Prop 8. His vote is not entirely clear, but Kennedy leaned significantly in the direction of justice.

Mike Freeman from CBS Sports reported Monday that “a current gay NFL player is strongly considering coming out publicly within the next few months — and after doing so, the player would attempt to continue his career.” That’s a move that would break one of the biggest barriers in American professional sports, which have never had an openly gay male athlete.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (pictured) was a pioneering journalist, newspaper editor, and lecturer. Not only was she one of the early civil rights leaders of her time, she also championed women’s rights and was part of the women’s suffrage movement. After a rich and active life, Wells would pass away in Chicago on this day in 1931.

Since he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year, George Zimmerman has been trying to convince the public that he was not acting simply out of racist aggression but because Martin attacked him. Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr, is not helping his cause. On Saturday, Zimmerman went on a Twitter tirade against “black teens,” equating the boy killed by his brother with De’Marquise Elkins, the 17-year-old suspect in the murder of a Georgia infant.

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear the first of two cases which could end discrimination against same-sex couples and ensure that all Americans can marry the person they love. Whatever happens in those two cases, one thing is all but certain: Justice Antonin Scalia will vote to maintain marriage discrimination, and he will spend much of this week’s oral arguments making insulting comments about LGBT Americans. Here are some of the most offensive things Scalia compared to homosexuality in his past opinions:

Twice a year, Tennessee holds a “health care lottery” that gives some hope to the uninsured residents in the state who can’t afford health coverage. Tennesseans who meet certain requirements — in addition to falling below a certain income threshold, they must be elderly, blind, disabled, or a caretaker of a child who qualifies for Medicaid — may call to request an application for the state’s public health insurance program, known as TennCare.

McDonald’s will make its ‘McWrap’ a permanent menu item with the launch of a big ad campaign starting April 1, and it’s clear the company is working to make sure the new product looks like a ‘healthier option’ on the menu.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

This weekend, Senate Democrats passed a federal budget for Fiscal Year 2014. In order to do so, Senate rules allow for consideration of any amendment that is brought to the floor. Senators introduced hundreds of amendments, which resulted in a “vote-o-rama.”

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Saturday marks the three year anniversary of President Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. While some the law’s most significant provisions won’t go into full effect until next year, many of its important reforms have already taken hold — and have already changed the lives of real Americans for the better. Here are just a few ways that the Affordable Care Act has bolstered the health and financial security of Americans from all around the country:

People often ask what, exactly, do progressives believe? Over the past few years, we’ve worked with a great group called the American Values Project, representing a cross section of leaders from think tanks, philanthropic organizations, and environmental, labor, youth, civil rights, and other progressive groups, to try to distill progressive beliefs and values into clear language in one digestible resource.

All 45 Senate Republicans voted Friday for a budget amendment that endorsed the repeal of both Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. While Congressional Republicans attempting to repeal Obamacare is nothingnew — this marks the 39th repeal attempt — this proposal also aimed to repeal the student loan reform and Pell Grant expansions that were enacted at the same time.

Over the past three years, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has repeatedly introduced budget resolutions that contain draconian spending cuts in an effort to stave off the debt crisis he says is right around the corner if it isn’t addressed immediately. Ryan’s plans, all three of which have passed the House of Representatives, would almost surely add to the debt instead of decreasing it, but his main view is that America’s current level of debt is weighing down the economy, a claim he repeated to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Thursday night.

The Senate plans to begin considering the Democratic-sponsored budget resolution on Friday or Saturday, including the slew of amendments that Republican senators have tacked onto the legislation. Since budget amendments only need a simple majority to pass, GOP lawmakers have seized the opportunity to push their agenda by rushing to file hundreds of them — including several that would dismantle Obamacare.

Thursday night, Congress passed the first federal legislation addressing firearms since the tragedy at Newtown, Connecticut. But while one might think the new laws would tighten federal restrictions aimed at preventing criminals from getting guns, the reality is the opposite: all of them are National Rifle Association (NRA) promoted laws that actually weaken federal firearm law.

Some of the nation’s largest health insurance companies are warning investors that they’ll raise insurance premiums by as much as 116 percent next year, as the coverage expansion provisions in the Affordable Care Act go into effect and millions of uninsured Americans begin purchasing coverage.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The planet we live on is valuable only as a repository for natural resources, according to Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX). Stockman, a lawmaker best known for bringing Ted Nugent to the State of the Union and opposing the Violence Against Women Act because it protected “change-gender” individuals, went on an extended Twitter rant Thursday afternoon accusing environmentalists of hating science.

Right after the House of Representatives approved a Senate bill to avert a government shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) set the stage for another down-to-the-wire crisis that will threaten the nation’s economic growth. At his weekly press conference, Boehner indicated that Republicans would again demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt ceiling, which it is set to hit in May.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The sad tale of Ota Benga (pictured below) highlights the many racially motivated atrocities Black people faced even as the dawn of the 20th century was unfolding. A Congolese native and Mbuti pygmy, Benga suffered under America’s racist practices as part of an exhibit for the St. Louis World Fair. Benga, snatched away from his home under the gaze of a businessman and missionary, would later be put on display at the Bronx Zoo’s “Monkey House” exhibit. Dismayed that he couldn’t return to his native land, Benga would commit suicide on this day in 1916.

Monday morning, the Republican National Committee released a lengthy “autopsy” of their 2012 electoral loss, much of which was devoted to the GOP’s weak standing among people of color. “It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party” the autopsy proclaims, and “the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship within the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.”

New research finds that the consumption of sugary drinks and sodas contributes to about 180,000 obesity-related deaths around the world — including the deaths of about 25,000 adult Americans — each year.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

People across the ideological spectrum are agitated over this Philadelphia Magazine article by Robert Huber entitled , “Being White in Philly: Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.” The article centers on anonymous interviews with white people describing their “honest” views about race, often not stated publicly according to the author. Huber describes the genesis of his article as follows:

In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre blasted the gun violence prevention plan introduced by President Obama and Democrats in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, but assured the committee the NRA supports “enforcing the federal gun laws on the books 100 percent of the time.” The gun lobby has long justified their opposition to new regulation by citing the myth that there are already 20,000 gun laws on the books. Republican lawmakers have dutifully taken up the line, protesting that we must enforce existing gun laws before even considering new ones.

For five years since the Great Recession, states have drastically cut funding for public universities, with long-lasting consequences for the U.S. economy. A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that every state except North Dakota and Wyoming is spending less per student than before the recession. As a result, students are paying much higher tuition, while quality of education has suffered from faculty cuts, closed campuses, eliminated course offerings and shut down educational resources like libraries and computer labs.

Ten years ago, “Operation: Shock and Awe” launched the war in Iraq. The next ten years would prove to be a calamity of unthinkable proportions, leading to the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, trillions spent and billions wasted. ThinkProgress has cataloged the entirety in a single timeline, stretching from the early days of the war to the present. The following is just a small sampling:

Ten years after the first American bombs fell on Baghdad, the United States is still paying the costs for the invasion of Iraq — monetarily, strategically, psychologically and morally. The decision to launch the war is sure to be re-debatedad nauseum over the coming days. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that it’s “too soon to tell” whether the Iraq war was a success. Here’s just five reasons why he’s wrong:

Monday, March 18, 2013

"The Bible" has been an incredibly successful miniseries for the History channel, so it's no wonder viewers took to the internet after noticing that the actor cast in the role of Satan looks quite a bit like President Barack Obama.

On Monday, following its loss in the 2012 presidential election, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released an autopsy report that aims to “grow the Party and improve Republican campaigns.” The so-called “Growth and Opportunity Project” spoke with “more than 2,600 people, both outside Washington and inside the Beltway” about how the party can appeal to the nation’s changing demographics of voters and start winning elections, and produced more than 200 recommendations to help Republicans connect with every-day Americans.

The latest House Republican budget would grant taxpayers with incomes above $1 million at least $200,000 in tax cuts even if the GOP closes tax loopholes to help pay for the plan, according to an analysis from Citizens for Tax Justice.

This morning, the biggest political story in Washington was a Republican National Committee “autopsy” of the GOP’s 2012 election loss. In it, the RNC proclaimed that “[i]t is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party” and that “the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship within the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.” Within a few hours, three top Republicans already took the first steps to doom this effort.

Much of the Republican National Committee’s Growth & Opportunity Project report is dominated by concerns with demographics. But throughout the report there are concerns about how Republicans can better engage with media and popular culture, from the suggestion that Republicans be more willing to go on programs like The Daily Show, to questioning how the party can better use its celebrity surrogates, to arguing for better use of data in determining ad buys. But wishing for these things to be done doesn’t make it so, and the Republican party faces some fundamental challenges trying to rebrand itself, among them these problems:

Sunday, March 17, 2013

On Sunday morning, Judge Thomas Lipps delivered a verdict in the much-anticipated Steubenville rape trial, determining the two high school football players charged with raping a young girl at a party are guilty on all three counts against them.

Today, there are budgets to be dithered over, and here to do the dithering are Senators Dick Durbin and Bob Corker -- perhaps setting up one of the more genial and reasonable discussions that we'll have on the matter this week. Not totally sure, but we'll see. Also, Fox News Sunday will have it's 6.397th "help the GOP rebrand" segment, with Matt Kibbe and Steve LaTourette. And then, their typically dull as dishwater panel discussion.

An uplifting 1960s letter from Spock to a mixed-race teen has resurfaced and recently gone viral.
Leonard Nimoy, the Star Trek star who played Spock, was so moved by a
young fan's letter describing her struggles with racial identity that
he decided he had to respond.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

When NBA legend and entrepreneur Magic Johnson debuted his new cable network Aspire on June 28, 2012, he promoted it to the unsuspecting public as being a primarily Black-owned and operated network whose sole purpose was to bring positive, smart Black programming back to television.

Every year at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, dozens of organizations big and small rent tables in an exhibition hall to dole out pens, stickers, and brochures promoting everything from homophobia to global warming denialism.

Friday, March 15, 2013

The early childhood education program Head Start provides educational opportunities specifically to low-income kids. But 70,000 of those students will lose the opportunity to be in the program as a result of the drastic reductions in funding triggered by sequestration.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans.

Although the fight for voting rights was a staple of the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and through the 1960s, protests over the ability to participle in the civic process have taken place long before. NewsOne takes a look at one such protest that occurred on this day in 1838 in the state of Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Congressional gridlock, automatic budget cuts took effect 14 days ago, threatening 700,000 jobs and gutting funds for vital programs in housing assistance, early childhood education, disaster relief, and national security. Secret Service staffing was also impacted, prompting the cancellation of White House tours last week. Republicans immediately attacked the decision as a political move designed to turn the public against the sequester and 14 Republican senators signed a letter demanding information.

As Congressional Republicans again rally around Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget and its goal of eliminating the deficit in ten years, many are using an old talking point. They claim that the federal government should model itself on the families and businesses and stop spending more money than it takes in. But a ThinkProgress examination of recent personal financial disclosure filings reveals that many of the same lawmakers who are urging the nation to balance its books are themselves in debt and have taken out personal and/or business loans.

A third measure to reform gun violence prevention passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday along party lines, but not without bitter opposition from Republicans, who claimed that such a ban would violate the Second Amendment and analogized restrictions on guns to censoring books under the First Amendment.

A new report by the “Costs of War” project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies finds that nearly 200,000 people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed in the war in Iraq President George W. Bush launched 10 years ago.

Chris and Ada Ngoforo, a Nigerian a couple living in London, grew so frustrated trying to find dolls that look like their young daughters that they decided to take matters into their own hands–by designing their own African-themed doll line called “Rooti Dolls.“

On Wednesday, the trial will begin for two high school boys charged with raping a young girl at a party. Their story — and the story of their town, Steubenville, OH — has captured national attention, bringing a focus onto football culture, social media, and the issue of consent.

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) rebuked Republicans for blocking Richard Cordray’s confirmation as director of her brainchild, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. After a bitter confirmation fight in 2011, President Obama bypassed the Senate using a recess appointment to grant Cordray a temporary term until the end of 2013. Republicans are threatening to filibuster him this time around unless the CFPB is drastically restructured.

When National Football League owners locked out players before the 2011 season, they did so claiming that the league’s financial system was driving it down a path of unsustainability. Even though league revenues were growing steadily, many owners, including Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, argued that they were destined for financial hardship because players were enjoying too large a share of the pie.

The right-wing Family Research Council — which uses its advocacy muscle to try to block comprehensive sexual health programs in public schools — is now going a step further, suggesting the young Americans who have premarital sex should be punished because they don’t deserve the right to engage in sexual intercourse.

Mississippi — where about one in three adults is at least 30 pounds heavier than a healthy weight — isn’t on board with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempt to combat obesity rates by regulating large sugary drinks. In fact, lawmakers in Mississippi want to be absolutely certain their own local officials won’t implement the same kind of public health initiatives. A bill awaiting Gov. Phil Bryant’s (R) signature would prevent any Mississippi county from taking steps to address the obesity epidemic by regulating the food and beverage industries:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) released the third iteration of the GOP budget on Tuesday morning. The document achieves balance in 10 years by maintaining the high revenue levels and health care savings that Republicans have vociferously opposed and slashing the health and safety net programs that middle and lower income Americans rely on. Top-income earners and corporations, meanwhile, would benefit from huge tax breaks.

With news of record corporate profits and increased bonuses for those at the top of the financial heap — and on-going income stagnation, job loss, and rising poverty for those in the middle and bottom of the ladder—it’s maddening for progressives to hear our political elites continuing to promote austerity as a means for growth.

Toward the end of the 19th century, labor and the distribution of jobs between Blacks and Whites became the centerpiece of a heinous attack that resulted in a riot that left six African-American workers dead. White workers, angered at the prospect that Black laborers were taking their jobs, launched their violent offensive on this day in 1895 in New Orleans.

Last Friday, February’s jobs report was released, boasting a decrease in unemployment at 7.7 percent, which is the lowest level of unemployment in four years. What wasn’t mentioned in the report, though, was Black unemployment, which continues to be nearly double the national average. NewsOne investigated why Black unemployment rates continue to hover at astounding rates while other Americans continue to experience marked relief.

On Saturday night, two undercover police officers shot and killed 16-year-old Kimani Gray. According to the police account, the officers approached Gray when he “adjusted his waistband in what the police describe as a suspicious manner.” When the police asked him to “show his hands,” they claim Gray turned around and pointed a gun at the officers, who fired 11 rounds. The weapon police say belonged to Gray was not fired.

Even as American corporations are raking in record profits, the largest among them are shifting larger amounts of money away from the United States and into offshore tax havens that allow them to pad their bottom lines even more, according to multiple analyses of legal filings made since the beginning of 2013.

Shortly after President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization into law, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) released a glowing press release claiming that a “Cornyn bill” to “eliminate nationwide rape kit backlog” was signed into law. The so-called “Cornyn bill” is the SAFER Act, which was incorporated into the VAWA renewal, and which “provide[s] funding for state and local governments to conduct audits of untested DNA evidence and create[s] a national reporting system to help track and prioritize untested rape kits,” according to Cornyn. By all appearances, it seems like a wonderful law. There’s only one problem.

They swap out bed pans, tend to wounds, and assist with every facet of day-to-day life — sometimes even living with their patients. They’re home health care aides, and they are a crucial resource in caring for America’s sick, elderly, and disabled — and they do it all for an average wage of $9.70 per hour, less than the mean hourly compensation for lifeguards, food servers, and dry cleaners.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s response to Congressional inquiries about what, if anything, he can do following an overturned sexual assault conviction in the Air Force lays bear just how far the military has to go in providing justice to victims of sexual violence.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (I) public health initiative to ban the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces was set to begin on Tuesday — but after a state judge struck down the initiative on Monday, New Yorkers won’t have to relinquish their supersize sodas anytime soon.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will release the third edition of his budget Tuesday, and it will again make drastic changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and federal spending levels. It will also revamp the federal tax code through what Ryan touted as “pro-growth tax reform” during an appearance on Fox News Sunday this weekend. If his past budgets are any indication, such tax reform would dramatically lower tax rates on the wealthy and corporations, costing the government trillions of dollars in revenue.

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Antibiotic resistance poses a catastrophic threat to medicine and could mean patients having minor surgery risk dying from infections that can no longer be treated, Britain's top health official said on Monday.

Harris Interactive rated 60 large American companies based on six key characteristics including product quality, trust, social responsibility and how employees are treated. The companies with the worst reputation quotients include many financial services institutions. But those with the best reputations include big retailers and tech companies. From 24/7 Wall St., based on the Harris survey, these are the 10 companies with the best reputations:

During a segment on women’s evolving roles in the workplace on Meet the Press Sunday morning, GOP political operative and former McCain campaign adviser Steve Schmidt made a compelling case for equal opportunity in American businesses and the country at large, asserting that organizations that do not afford women a place at the table are on the wrong side of history and will, eventually, lose out.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Early next week, the European Union Parliament is planning to vote on a resolution calling for a sweeping ban on pornography in the name of gender equality. If it passed, the resolution could be the first step towards a continent-wide ban on pornography on a wide swath of media. But, good intentions aside, that would actually be a bad move for both Europe’s women and the EU’s commitment to free speech.

The Great Recession destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth and economic output. Amd in what looks like a measure of good news, most of the household wealth that was vaporized is back. However, it’s almost all going to the rich:

Conservative media fixture James O’Keefe rose to stardom in 2009 after posting an undercover video supposedly showing employees of the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) agreeing to help him smuggle underage prostitutes into the US. The video circulated widely in the conservative blogosphere, where activists saw the clip as proof that ACORN, a major force in community organizing and voter registration drives, was corrupt. O’Keefe’s sting destroyed ACORN’s reputation and the employee, Juan Carlos Vera, was fired.

Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than three dozen times, ran on a pledge to eliminate the law on “day one,” and sought to underfund the measure at every opportunity. But since the Supreme Court upheld the ACA and President Obama won re-election the political dynamics of reform have changed: Republican governors are slowly embracing elements of the law and Congressional Republicans are no longer scheduling votes to repeal it.

Although they say curiosity has the power to somehow kill your cat, it seems that humans are immune. We would however, suggest putting Pooky away (just in case) because we are about to unleash the biggest mysteries known to man. Although some of these mysteries are only on the list as a result of their infamy, some are genuinely baffling, and if you manage to solve any of them leave a comment below so that we can cross them off.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The historic “Selma to Montgomery marches,” with the first of the three protest marches known as “Bloody Sunday,” highlighted a turbulent time of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led voter registration drives in the small town of Selma, Ala., with the intent of combating White resistance toward African Americans gaining rights to vote in elections.

States with more gun laws have lower levels of gun fatalities, according to a new study from Boston Children’s Hospital. While the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, does not establish cause-and-effect, nor which particular gun laws are most effective, it does suggest a positive relationship between gun control and gun violence prevention. According to NBC News:

In 1999, James Glassman and economist Kevin Hassett, who eventually both worked for President George W. Bush, famously wrote a book predicting that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would go to 36,000 within three to five years. Of course, instead of the Dow going on the rocket ride they predicted, the financial crisis sent it spiraling into oblivion, bottoming out at 6,547 in March of 2009.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on Republican House leadership to take up legislation recently introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) that would raise the federal minimum wage above $10 an hour. Miller and Harkin announced the bill, which would set the minimum wage at $10.10 per hour and index it to inflation so it raised automatically thereafter, this week.

College tuition has been rising steadily for decades. Average tuition rose by more than 8 percent in 2012 and now tops $5,000 a year, a record high, according to a new report from the State Higher Education Officers Association, CNN Money reports:

While Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) undoubtedly won the DC news cycle on Wednesday with his twelve-hour long filibuster against CIA Director nominee John Brennan, his opposition to drones is not as all-encompassing as you would think.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere underwent one of its biggest single-year jumps ever in 2012, according to researchers at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2013, carbon dioxide levels increased by 2.67 parts per million — a rise topped only by the spike in 1998.

As the 10th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq approaches, the body charged with overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has issued its final report, capping a tale of spending far too much money for very little results.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

OBERLIN, Ohio — Scrawls of racially offensive graffiti and, more recently, a report of someone wearing what looked like a Ku Klux Klan-type hooded robe on campus have shaken students at historically liberal Oberlin College, one of the nation’s first universities to admit blacks.

For a certain segment of Bill Cosby’s fan base, the legendary comedian is as pristine as it gets. That is, so long as he doesn’t step out of his place. The moment he does, all huckleberry hell breaks loose. Indeed, one quick scan of the virtual abyss — otherwise known as the comments section — and it’s clear who would rather see Cosby do a shimmy in a good suit with Phylicia Rashad in the opening credits of “The Cosby Show” than bear witness to the racism of Republicans.

Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) introduced a bill in the House Friday that would require states that want to receive full funding for welfare assistance to force its citizens to waive their Fourth Amendment rights and submit to random drug testing. In a press release, Fincher describes the Welfare Integrity Act of 2013:

As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act, many on both sidesof the aisle are speaking out in defense of the law. But just seven years after joining in the Senate’s 98-0 vote to reauthorize the law, two Senate Republicans are refusing to say whether they think the law they voted for passes constitutional muster.

The Souther Poverty Law Center released a new report on Tuesday finding that “the number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment ‘Patriot’ groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012″ and that the number of hate groups has remained at “near record levels” of more than 1,000. The group is calling on the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to increase the amount of resources devoted to tracking and combatting domestic radical anti-government groups.

In order to avert a government shutdown later this month, Congress and the Obama administration must negotiate a continuing resolution to maintain federal funding — and a group of House Republicans is suggesting that deal should also roll back Obamacare’s effort to expand women’s access to affordable contraception.

Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity launched an Islampophobic attack against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) during his Fox News show on Thursday night, implying that the Muslim Congressman is a racist and an anti-Semite. The segment came just days after Ellison and Hannity engaged in a confrontational interview on Tuesday night. “We decided to take a closer look at the man who called me immoral and a liar,” Hannity began. “Now it didn’t take long to prove his hypocrisy, as his past reveals a host of radical connections primarily to Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam.”

It’s a sign of how anxious the right wing is about the possibility that Ashley Judd might run for Senate against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that the attacks on her have geared up before she’s even formally entered the race. There’s the American Crossroads ad trying to frame her as out of touch with a series of relatively anodyne and contextless quotations. And now, the Daily Caller, which has been trying to frame Judd’s feminist beliefs as fringe, has launched the stupidest salvo against her at all: arguing that Judd, because she has done nude scenes for her work as an actress, “has—literally—nothing left to show us.” In an exceptionally gross piece, Taylor Bigler, the Caller’s Entertainment Editor (Entertainment, in Caller parlance, apparently means surfing Mr. Skin and publishing clickbait trash gossip) writes:

Corporate profits hit record highs in the second half of 2012, but that prosperity hasn’t led to the creation of jobs, since America’s biggest firms are sitting on stocks of cash instead of investing them back into the economy.

Yesterday, voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly approved new measures to clamp down on executive pay. Under the approved referendum — which means that the new provisions will be added to the Swiss constitution — shareholders will have the ability to veto executive pay packages, so-called “golden parachutes” will be outlawed, and executives who defy the rules could see jail time. As the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Peaple wrote, “Swiss voters’ anger is understandable. Like other countries, it has seen executive pay rise out of all proportion over the past decade”:

It’s difficult in modern politics for those of one ideological persuasion to adequately describe and comprehend what the other side believes on its own terms. Progressives correctly scoff at right-wing notions that they are trying to pursue some undefined “European socialist” agenda and force the federal government into every aspect of American economic and social life. Progressives see themselves engaging in pragmatic uses of both governmental and private actions to solve concrete problems such as poverty, the lack of health care, or climate change. Progressives want to achieve greater liberty, equality, and opportunity for all people in a manner that acknowledges actual inequalities in social life and takes appropriate steps, within democratic and constitutional limits, to redress these inequities.

The Associated Press’ Stephen Ohlemacher is out with an article lamenting the tax burden levied on the richest Americans who are “paying some of their biggest federal tax bills in decades even as the rest of the population continues to pay at historically low rates.”

In “Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution,” former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) argues that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be eligible for American citizenship, breaking from the growing bipartisan consensus surrounding reform and contradicting his own position on the issue earlier this year. The book, written with attorney Clint Bolick, will be published on Tuesday.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence.

President Obama nominated MIT physicist Ernest Moniz as Secretary of Energy to replace outgoing Steven Chu. In his announcement, Obama called Moniz a “brilliant scientist” who “knows that we can produce more energy and grow our economy while still taking care of our air, our water, and our climate.”

Two weeks ago, a petition asking the White House to act on a recent Library of Congress decision that restricted consumer use of cell phones reached the required threshold for a response. The administration replied today by agreeing that it’s time to legalize cell phone unlocking:

A Washington Post profile of President Obama’s efforts to diversify the federal bench provides an interesting window into the depth of his commitment to this project. Of the 35 judicial nominees currently pending before the Senate, “17 of the 35 pending judicial nominees are women, 15 are ethnic minorities and five are openly gay.” Only six are white straight men.

I like how Mitt and Ann Romney are described as "speaking out." Remember when we used to reserve the term "speaking out" for people bravely blowing the whistle on someone powerful or raising their voice in pursuit of some sort of justice, and not "rich dude who got booked on a blather show?"

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin is calling out Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for making "deceptive" and "disturbing" remarks about voting rates among minorities in the Bay State.

With the Supreme Court having heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act last week, the Obama administration weighed in again Sunday with another impassioned defense of the 1965 law.

SELMA, Ala. — Black leaders commemorating a famous civil rights march on Sunday said efforts to diminish the impact of African-Americans' votes haven't stopped in the years since the 1965 Voting Rights Act added millions to Southern voter rolls.

Republican leaders will never be satisfied, according to Paul Krugman.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist wrote in a blog post Sunday that lawmakers shouldn’t be pushing for a Grand Bargain on the budget because even if they reached one, Republicans leaders would soon renege and demand more.

WASHINGTON -- A baby born with the AIDS virus appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who's now 2 1/2 and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

State Rep. Ernest Hewett (D-CT) was stripped of his leadership position as Deputy Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives this week after he was caught on tape making an inappropriate remark to a high school student testifying before a legislative committee.

With Congress unable to reach a deal to avert the indiscriminate spending cuts put in place in the Budget Control Act of 2011, President Obama on Friday signed an order authorizing the government to begin canceling $85 billion from federal accounts for this fiscal year.

Celeste Greig, president of California Republican Assembly, the state’s oldest and largest GOP volunteer organization told The Daily Democrat this week that pregnancies resulting from rape are rare “because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.”

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Simple man, who likes simple things. Who seems to meet some simple people and I don't mean the good simple either. Still, it's fun to meet people who can relate to things behind the wall of the internet. "Sometimes it's best not to see a face only to feel a heart."